ELM Garden Design

Eustacia and Paul are extremely good at what they do. Firstly they are great individuals, Eustacia is basically a living encyclopedia in terms of plants and wildlife. She also has a great sense of space and proportions as well as a focused vision and has a keen eye for color combinations and overall garden layout. Paul is simply a master with stone work, incredibly fast and precise. The fine stone work he has done adds a sense of detail and finish that was lacking on the exterior of our house. Eustacia and Paul designed a stone patio on the side of the house which is linked by a path surrounded by plants that leads to the front of the house. One of the challenges was to consider the previous walkable stone layout at the other side of the house to create a natural walking flow around the house which leads to the new patio while adding flowers and plants as well as stone seating areas which frame the new patio. The work they have both done at our house surpassed our expectations, not only in the craft, but also attention to detail as well as overall follow up and maintenance. It has been a great please working with them both and to be guided by their expertise and acute recommendations is always welcome. We are very proud of what they have added to our house.

ELM Garden Design is the premier Design Center to use in the Hudson Valley Region. Over the past 10 years ELM Garden Design has transformed our entire property into a lush perennial garden that increases in enjoyment each year. The work has been extensive and unbelievably beautiful. ELM Garden and Stone Designers are professional, knowledgeable & always with in our budget. The success of ELM Garden Design is a direct result of their ability to tap into the customers vision of their dream garden.

Elm Garden Design has most creatively and originally designed our garden from scratch ( or from the ground up ), providing a blueprint of patios and pathways, always undulating and never static or boring. These have been surrounded by colorful clusters of perennials from May to October while pots of annuals have recently provided surprise. Although Elm clearly has it's own beautiful plan it has never been more important than providing us with personal opportunity for our participation in ideas and donations of our own treasured specimens from home. While design is of primary significance, also important has been maintenance of the garden and grounds. The designers are extraordinarily knowledgeable about fauna as well as flora and can make sense of all manor of life on our considerable property. Their willingness to respect and work around all living things is admirable. Inviting Elm's designers into your garden will enhance it's beauty and variety providing you with pleasure and gratification each year. The designers' special talents lie not only in design but also in constructing various garden sculptures, gates and other artistic details that will contribute to making your outdoor home uniquely yours.=

I have worked with Eustacia and Paul of ELM Garden Design on numerous occasions over the years. There are not many of us, landscape designers, in our rural, but very special Catskills, so it is great to have like-minded creative and responsible colleagues for collaboration. We consult on designs and various challenges and help each other out on occasion. Eustacia has deep knowledge of plants and excellent eye for reading the land and Paul is an excellent mason with and incredible feel for stone and what works. They are both great resources when I need some reinforcement or to talk through a problem. ELM does beautiful designs that are sensitive to the environment and integrity of the surroundings while going to great lengths to meet the clients’ needs and create beautiful solutions. In addition to being a pleasure to work with, they are very organized and attentive to meeting budgets and schedules. For one concrete example, I subcontracted them to help me with a masonary project for a public space and it was an excellent experience. I needed a couple stone benches buit in an interesting configuration around a flagpole. They helped me shape the design and Paul built the benches and helped install the flagpole (a nice little extra :-). I now look for opportunities to collaborate just in order to have the pleasure of working with them and taking advantage of their deep skill and creativity.

Working with Eustacia from ELM Garden Design was a distinct pleasure. Eustacia's professional training in, and knowledge of, landscape design combined with her knowledge of every type of plant and tree conducive to the geographic location of the project in Sullivan County, NY, made for a successful collaboration between homeowner and contractor. Eustacia and her partner Paul (a master craftsman in his own right with stonework and masonry, and all things requiring building and tools!) were always accessible and responsive. They truly were "hands-on", from selecting specimens from a nursery that met their high expectations to doing and/or supervising the actual plantings. Prior to using ELM, I had used other landscapers whose work was acceptable & functional but in retrospect paled in comparison both as to imagination and the ability to work in an environment in which the elements of nature needed to be considered and incorporated. ELM basically took over a landscape design that was functional but lacked imagination. By the time we sold the house, one of the top selling points were the beautiful plantings and gardens, along with certain stonework, created and maintained by them. Eustacia's design vision also is very keen, but she was also a good listener as to what as homeowners we wanted and envisioned, which she was able to articulate both in a design plan and then in the finished project. And on top, Eustacia and Paul are "good people"; a pleasure to have worked with them for so many years. The project date listed is an estimate of when we began, as the length stretched over 5 or more years, and involved annually adding additional elements as we began to see how certain aspects of the project developed and matured (which accounts for the wide range of project cost, which was spread over a number of years, the total closer to the lower end of the scale stated). We worked with them continuously until we sold the property. I give them the highest recommendation.